Gravity Rush on the PS Vita is the game you didn’t know you needed

Gravity Rush may be flying under the radar of most gamers, but after a short …

The Vita is shaping up to have a strong launch lineup. At CES, I was able to play another game that should be ready for the system's US launch, or at least near it. Gravity Rush is a title that has been on the radar of the press for a little while now, and I was finally able to give it a shot at CES. Even with a very limited amount of time put into the game, I was immediately impressed with the game's graphics and play.

The main hook? You can control gravity at will, allowing you to "fall" towards almost anything you can see. In practice this is a thrilling way to explore the scenery.

You play Kat, a woman who meets... well, a magic cat, and finds out she has the ability to reorient gravity. The game features an art style that's an attractive mixture of cartoon-like graphics with an almost gothic setting. The game's world is a surreal place, and not just because you're floating around the air minutes after meeting the aforementioned magical cat.

I'm also going to go on record and say that more games need magical cats.

Gravity Rush

By hitting a button, you can suspend gravity in the game, and Kat begins to flail for control. You then aim yourself at other buildings and hit another button to "fall" in that direction. This allows you to run up the sides of buildings, explore everything you can see, or even add weight to your attacks by falling into the enemy you're attacking. As you play more, you'll uncover the mystery of that cat, and explore some very odd-looking environments. The game is a blast to play, with a wonderful sense of exploration and freedom. At the same time, the gravity manipulation feels almost scary, as if Kat can barely control what she's doing. It's a fine line to walk, but I walked away from the demo hungry to play more. I can't give it any higher praise.

The game comes from the mind of Keiichiro Toyama, who directed the original Silent Hill and later worked on the Siren series. This is a game we'll be watching as we get closer to the Vita's launch.

Looks cool, but can I control the game without using the touch screen stuff? I like the idea of the Vita because I want buttons on my gaming devices, and having to move your hand away from their natural position to suddenly swipe the screen to dodge sounds awkward. Can I just push triangle to dodge, or something?

It looks great and is on my list, though Amazon has it not coming out until May and recently moved Little Big PLanet 2 release out to may as well. Are things slipping and not coming out next month or is amazon wrong?

I remember reading about a zero-G combat game that was supposedly heavily inspired by Ender's Game.

The Vita hardware is actually quite impressive. I just don't know what I want to spend money on a dedicated portable gaming device when I have my phone. My phone lacks analog joysticks, but that is why I actually really liked the Xperia Play in concept, though I hear the screen killed that device.

Sounds like fun. A lot of fun. I've been hoping for good gravity-bending games for a while now. It's just a shame this is coming to a system that I'm not likely to buy. (Not really a NOMS complaint, though it sounds like one.)

eh Kotaku already spoiled the lot of us with this game eariler; watched an extended trailer and I was genuinely interested; now if only SanDisk will make knock off Vita sticks so I don't have to get wallet raped by first party flash memory prices.

I will buy a PS Vita if the following is true: "With PS Vita, I can play PSN DLC games like Castlevania SOTN and Harmony of Despair, using the same save-game that has been stored in the PSN-Plus cloud, seamlessly."

I will buy a PS Vita if the following is true: "With PS Vita, I can play PSN DLC games like Castlevania SOTN and Harmony of Despair, using the same save-game that has been stored in the PSN-Plus cloud, seamlessly."

Can anyone confirm this statement to be true?

I have not heard any blanket statements saying this will be the case for all PSN games. However, games like Ruin and Motorstorm RC will use the same save file for PS3 and Vita. In the case of Motorstorm, they also announced that you pay once and get both versions. Hopefully they do this with more PSN games going forward, I view that as a killer feature.

My Vita is on pre-order and I am all for magical cats (you can even have a few of mine..) but I respectfully disagree about the list of launch titles. If anything, I think that the 3DS had a better list of launch titles than the Vita does (and we know what happened there). I am hoping that PSP games play well on Vita otherwise I might not have anything to play.I also think that the Vita's sales plunge in Japan is due to the lack of interesting games. I am already having trouble finishing Uncharted 3 and LBP2 was a little too SteamPunk for me, so what else the latest iteration of Starburst? Meh.

Argh...I haven't had a handheld since the Nomad -- this might get me back on the wagon.

Wow, the Nomad came out in 1995. Why the lack of interest for 17 years? Also, the Nomad is awesome.

Guess I just didn't have much opportunity for gaming on the go, so I didn't get anything portable. Sure have had lots of opportunity to game while stationary though....

And yes, the Nomad is awesome, unfortunately mine has a mysterious orange pixel-smear across the screen. It still functions, but the orange is completely opaque. I could hook it up to a TV, but at that point I'd rather just grab an emulator.